World Economic Forum official calls for strengthened collaboration between public, private stakeholders in health sector

A top official of the World Economic Forum has called for strengthening collaboration between private and public stakeholders to scale innovative solutions that can better address present and future health challenges. Though the medical profession has transformed in recent decades in India, health systems and health workers were pushed to their limits during the Covid pandemic, Shyam Bishen, Head of Health and Healthcare at the WEF said in a statement on National Doctor's Day.

"The Indian health sector will continue to be strained over the coming years due to an aging population and the growing burden of chronic disease.

"To face this and other future challenges, the public and private sectors must come together and co-create solutions to support those in the medical profession and their ability to carry out their essential work," Bishen said.


The World Economic Forum's Platform for Shaping the Future of Health and Healthcare is dedicated to building, facilitating, and scaling such partnerships.

"We are working with our multi-sector community to advance initiatives to support those in the medical profession and deliver better health outcomes," he said.

One of the initiatives include leveraging technologies to combat non-communicable diseases. This is to rethink the way the global community delivers care for chronic conditions across the patient journey through the utilization of artificial intelligence, tele-health solutions, and digital infrastructure, Bishen said.

The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience Initiative aims to build knowledge, guide action and facilitate cross-sectoral collaboration to strengthen health system governance, workforce development, and care delivery through the international exchange amongst stakeholders, he said.

Listing more initiatives, Bhishen said the global health equity network which fosters multisectoral investments in sustainable solutions that can better address the medical and social determinants of health equity, which will decrease such inequities within marginalized and under-represented communities.